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Sister Hedricks came over often and prayed for me. When on the second
Friday she came and I was no better, she asked me whether I had sent to
Anderson and to the Scandinavian Publishing Company at St. Paul Park to
have them pray for me. On telling her I had not done so and explaining to
her that I had no faith for my own healing, I said, "I could pray for your
healing if you were sick, but I have no faith for myself, and I have always
preached that when folks were saved they should have faith to pray for
their own healing, so I do not want to bother the folks to pray for me."
"Well," she said, "aren't you humble enough to tell them that you have no
faith for yourself?" I answered, "All right, you pray for me and I will
think it over." The next day I asked wife to write to these two places, and
when she had written and sealed the two letters I was instantly healed!
Wife sent the letters.

After getting healed I decided to go to the revival meeting at Hereford,
but there was no train going there until Monday and it was in the month of
November and very cold. And it was at the time when the automobile first
came into use. One family in the congregation at Hereford had a Ford
furnished with a top and side curtains, another family had a Buick (called
a gentleman's car), and it had no top nor even a windshield on it.

I found out later that the owning of these cars had caused some little
friction in the congregation. In fact, some had said that nobody could have
one of those machines and still be a Christian. But they had decided to
leave the matter until the time Brother Susag should come and he would help
them out.

When we were leaving my home to drive to town to take the train for there,
it was really cold. I said to my wife, "Let's go back in the house and ask
the Lord to send a man to meet me at Elbow Lake, with a car having a top on
it and side curtains"--for I was still very weak. On arriving at Elbow Lake
I went to the post office and wrote a card home--I would have had to change
trains there if no one had come to meet me--and as I came out of the post
office I saw a man across the street--walking in the direction I was going.
He looked at me and I looked at him, wondering, then he came running across
the street and exclaimed, "Now I know why I came to town today! I am here
to drive you to the meeting. I had left my car in town to have a little
work done on it, not intending to use it until after the meeting."

Then he went on to say, "We live six miles from town, and this morning as I
was working around the barn the Lord said to me, 'You go to town and get
your car.' My wife said, 'John, leave that car alone; don't go to town.'
But I told her that the Lord said, 'You go and get the car.' And I came as
fast as I could get here."

He took me to the service. Bro. E. G. Masters was preaching, and when he
had finished speaking he asked me to come to the pulpit and tell how the
Lord had healed me and how it was that I managed to get to the service. I
related the whole story, telling how I had prayed for someone to meet me
who had a. car having a top to it and side curtains to keep out the cold. I
then added that I was so glad the Lord had lots of cars; that as for me, I
never expected to have a car of my own for I did not think that I would
ever be able to afford anything like that. That settled the car difficulty
in the congregation--and I was entirely ignorant of the fact of there
having been any trouble! Today I am using my ninth car.

That meeting was a real success. Brother Masters, for a number of evenings,
had offered a brand new eighteen dollar Bible to any preacher, professor,
presiding elder or bishop that could come into the pulpit and prove that we
were not preaching the Bible. He gave them five minutes to come to the
front. One family belonging to a certain denomination sent for their bishop
and he came. After the service was over and the family had taken the bishop
to their home, they asked him why he did not get up and prove that we were
not preaching the truth so as to get the Bible. The good man answered,
"After those two men were finished speaking there was nothing to say. They
preached the Bible." Brother Masters spoke on the "White Horse of Calvary"
and used the blackboard to illustrate his meaning.

* * * * *

Brother Peter Peterson of Hoboken, New Jersey and I held some meetings
together up in a newly settled district of northern Minnesota. Our offering
for two weeks services was one round fifty-cent piece.

While there we had a call to go to the insane asylum, at Fergus Falls,
Minnesota to pray for a Brother Weegan who had lost his mind. After
entering the institution we were locked in the cell with him and on bended
knees with our hands uplifted toward heaven, we began to pray and all of a
sudden he was restored to his right mind. We knocked on the door to have
the attendant came and let us out. As we were going out of the door Brother
Weegan pushed his head between us and the attendant and said to the man,
"You might just as well let me out, too, for I am as rational as these two
preachers now, and I will not hurt you any more."

Then I asked the attendant whether there was a man in the place by the name
of John Lukesen of Irving, Minnesota, and he told me there was such a man
there. I told him we had ten minutes to spare and asked him whether we
could go in and see him without first having to go to the superintendent's
office for permission. The man lifted his hands and said, "You can see
anyone in this institution since this one man has received help from you."

He then proceeded to give us information about the one we wanted to see. He
said, "When Mr. Lukesen first came here we had to have him in a padded cell
and he got so bad that we had to tie him to his cot and now he is like a
wild cat and nothing but skin and bones; he won't be long for this world."

When he opened the door to the cell, there I saw my neighbor lying on his
cot and he surely did look like a wild cat, as the man had said! The
compassion of the Lord Jesus came upon me and I lifted my hands toward
heaven and called aloud to him, "John Lukesen, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom
I serve, makes you well!" And he was well! Shortly after this, he was sent
home.

We planned to go from there to Hereford, Minnesota. At Evansville where we
had to change trains, we inquired of the station agent when the train for
Hereford would be leaving. We were informed that there would be no train
leaving for that place before Thursday at three o'clock. We were told that
only two trains a week went from there to Hereford and this was Tuesday--a
long time to wait!

Brother Peterson said, "Let us go out and pray." After we had prayed we
returned to the depot and asked the agent when the train for Hereford would
be leaving. He answered gruffly, "I told you Thursday afternoon at three
o'clock." "All right," said Brother Peterson, "Let us go out and pray."
After praying we went back the second time and asked the agent the same
question; and this time he was really gruff. And he surely informed us that
there would be no train leaving before Thursday afternoon at three o'clock.
Again, Brother Peterson said, "All right, let us go out and pray."

We went out once more into the grove to pray and Brother Peterson did the
praying: "Lord, the President can get a special pullman train any time he
wants it and he is only the president of the United States; and here are
we, Brother Susag and I, Thy ambassadors. We are not asking Thee for a
pullman car--we will be satisfied with an old caboose--the distance is only
30 miles; so Lord, won't you please talk to the agent?" We both said AMEN.

On returning to the agent for the third time, Brother Peterson said to him,
"When will that train be ready for Hereford?" In a very mild tone he
replied, "I have been thinking about it and I will shove a few box cars and
a caboose together and send you fellows out." And we both said, "Thank you,
sir." And so the Lord answered prayer and sent us home on a special train!

When wife and I got saved, my brothers and families and wives quit writing
to us, and in four years we seldom heard from them. One evening a letter
came from my sister-in-law telling us that my brother had lost his reason
and had been sent to the insane asylum at St. Peter, Minnesota, and asking
me to come at once. Not having any money on hand to go with, I went to a
near neighbor and showed him the letter and asked him if he would loan me
fifteen dollars so that I could go to Minneapolis and also to St. Peter. He
told me that he would do that even if I were not able to pay him back. The
next day I went to Minneapolis to my sister-in-law and her five children.
Jerome, the oldest boy, seven years of age, said, "Uncle, are you going to
bring Daddy home?" I said, "Son, I cannot bring your Daddy home, but Jesus
Christ whom I serve will bring him home."

My sister-in-law related how it all happened. She went for her pastor and
my brother-in-law, a professor in the Lutheran college. When they came
Jerome said to them, "Won't you pray like Uncle Swen does?" They had
evidently talked about our praying even though they did not write to us.
After they had gone his wife had to let my brother out-doors and he ran
four blocks without a thread of clothing on--until a policeman captured
him.

I went to St. Peter, and Dr. Tumbleson, the president of the institution,
refused to let me see my brother. I told him that I must see him; that as a
minister of the gospel I had a right to go where a doctor could go. But he
still refused and called in two other doctors who said to me, "Your brother
is not only insane but is seriously ill and we do not expect him to leave
this institution alive." To which I replied, "Then so much the more do I
have to see him; and if you continue to refuse to let me see him you will
have two Susags in this institution, for I will stay until you grant me the
right to see my brother." Finally relenting, they sent for a man to take me
to see my poor brother.

As I entered the cell in which he was confined my brother did not know me.
He was walking around the room more like an animal than like a man. I knelt
down in the middle of the floor and prayed. After a while he came and put
his hand on my shoulder and said, "Swen, how does it come that you are
here?" I said, "I have come to help you, Mike." "Thank you, I am glad you
have come; something got into my head and I lost my mind. How is my
family?" I told him they were all well and had sent their greetings to him.
Then the man who had brought me in took hold of me and ordered me out.

But I was satisfied. This was the 22nd of March and I fasted from one meal
every day for seventeen days and some days I would touch neither water nor
food telling the Lord I had promised Mike's wife and his children that I
was going to bring the husband and daddy home; and, "Jesus, I will give you
no rest until you do so."

On the eighth of April during morning worship the Spirit of the Lord
revealed to me that the Lord had heard our prayer and that my brother was
perfectly well! I jumped up from my knees and ran around the house shouting
the glory of God. Wife thought, "Here is another crazy Susag," but Brother
Enos Key, of Red Key, Indiana (who had come to hold a meeting) was with us
and he said, "Praise God, Brother Susag has the victory!" And three days
later I received a letter from Doctor Tumbleson giving us the good news
that on the eighth day of April the nurse went to take food to my brother
and found him perfectly well in mind and body. And that he was doing
bookkeeping for the institution and could come home any time only for the
customary red tape it would take a few days before he could come. In a
short time he was home and well.

* * * * *

On one occasion when I was holding a meeting at the fishing town of
Sookden, Denmark, a great storm arose. As is the custom in fishing towns,
boats put out to sea at high tide for better fishing conditions; forty-two
had gone from here about two o'clock in the night. Toward morning the storm
broke and on into the forenoon it became very fierce. Some of the older
people were telling of a similar storm they remembered of some forty years
before when thirty-eight boats went out and such a storm blew up. If I
remember correctly, not one boat returned.

In those days there were no motor boats. They were all sailboats, generally
three men to a boat. This time, however, they had gasoline motors on the
boats and from twelve o'clock until three o'clock one boat after the other
returned, some of them full of water, barely getting to shore. Forturnately
the wind was blowing toward the shore or they might not have made a safe
landing.

I was staying at the home of Brother Morton Petersen. He and his crew had
not returned as yet. It seemed that most of the population of the town was
standing on the hills looking for his return. I heard someone say to his
wife, "Marie, do you expect Morton to return?" She answered, "He has been
out so many times and has come back, and I expect him back this time." He
generally went farther out than any of the fishermen because the farther
out the fish were supposed to be larger and better.

We stood out there for two hours or more. About five o'clock someone said,
"I see a dark spot out there." A little later someone else shouted, "I see
a spot, too!" And then we began to see the spot more and more often, and at
last they came safely to land--and not a bucket of water in the boat.

On our way home I asked Brother Petersen how he had gotten along. He said,
"When we realized the storm was on hand we packed up our fishing lines and
I ordered my partner to take care of the motor and I myself took charge of
the rudder. My partner was a saved man but we had a boy who was not saved.
I ordered him to be ready to dip out the water if any got in the boat."

I asked him whether they did much talking during that terrible storm and he
said, "No, I was praying all the time that we might reach land safely,
because the young man with us was not saved and he was the sole support of
his widowed mother, his father and one or two brothers having gone down
somewhere in the North Sea not so long ago. We were getting along very
well--for the Lord helped me steer the boat right--but the worst that we
had to meet was just before we landed--there were three sandbars we had to
cross. If the waves struck us just right we would get over, but if not, we
would get stuck in the sandbars, and there would be no help for us. When we
came to the first one a big wave carried us safely over the sandbar. I said
'Thank God, we are over the first one;' and so it was with the other two;
and each time I said, 'Thank God for taking us over, and too, for not
letting the water get into our boat.'"

A week later I embarked on the steamer Olaf Barger, sailing from
Fredriksen, Denmark, to Sweden. As I was going on board the boat the
Captain came to me and asked whether I could spare him a few minutes before
we landed in Sweden, as he wished to have a talk with me. When we got so
far that we could begin to see the rocky coast of Sweden he came to me and
began his narrative. He said, pointing ahead, "You see that three-mast
schooner standing upon that rock?" I said, "Yes, I see it." "You remember
the awful storm we had a week ago today. We were just coming out from
Gottenburg to return to Denmark--an hour's sailing--and the schooner called
for help but we were unable to even help ourselves so that we could not
possibly help them. They were blown upon the rocks, but the people were
saved." Then he pointed to the left to two big rocks, and continued, "And
right there was a small steamer in trouble. They, too, called for help but
we could not give it and they went down.

"We now saw that it would be impossible for us to reach Denmark and were
fortunate in managing to turn the ship's course back toward Gottenburg. I
tied myself to the bridge with an inch rope. Down into the waves we went
and I said to myself, 'We have seen the sun for the last time.' But we came
up and went down again many, many times. Then I did something I had never
in all my life done before--I am sixty-five years old--I prayed the Lord to
save my ship and all that were sailing with me. Along in the afternoon I
found myself calling on God for salvation of my soul, and the Lord did save
me and finally brought my ship, and those sailing with me, safely into the
harbor at nine o'clock that evening, it having taken us nine hours to do
one hour's sailing.

"Knowing that you were a minister of the gospel I wanted to tell you the
story that you might perhaps tell it to others."

How longsuffering and merciful is the Son of God toward the children of men
that when they repent and turn to Him, HE FORGIVES THEM.

* * * * *

One time when I arrived home from one of my evangelistic tours I found that
my two young sons who were twins, eleven years of age, had been cutting
hay. It was all raked and rowed up ready for hauling, and they were
rejoicing that I had come as they were counting on me to help them haul and
stack the hay. They said, "Dad, tomorrow you will have to help us." I said,
"All right, we will have to get up early to get it done as I am leaving the
following day to start another meeting."

The next morning we started out. We had to drive eighty rods south on the
road, then we turned another eighty rods east to the hay meadow. Just as I
began to pitch the hay up in the rack the boys exclaimed, "Dad, it's
raining." "Yes," I said, and stuck my pitchfork in the ground, threw my hat
beside it and said, "Let's pray." I said to the Lord, "This hay is yours;
this farm is yours and I am your servant. This hay must be hauled today as
I leave tomorrow to minister unto the people, so please, at least keep the
rain off the hay meadow and off the road where we have to drive. Amen."

I went to pitching hay again; it was just pouring down all around us as far
as we could see across the fence and west of the road. The only spots where
it did not rain was where we were working and on the road we were driving.
It rained all day, and it did not just rain--it poured! We hauled hay all
day, until a little after six o'clock I slid off the stack in the yard and
then the rain just poured down. I said to the boys, "The Lord surely heard
prayer." They said, "Yes, He did," and we thanked the Lord.

After I had left the next day, our neighbor came over and seeing the stack
asked the boys when they stacked that hay. They told him, "Yesterday, Daddy
was home." (There was a distance of about twenty rods between his house and
ours). He said, "That is impossible. I took a rest all day for the rain
just poured down and I could not do anything." He thought it must have been
the day before that we hauled and stacked the hay. But the boys told him
that "Daddy prayed and it did not rain on our hay meadow, nor on the road
where we were driving." This man was greatly astonished at hearing this.

* * * * *

One afternoon, about three o'clock, the renters on our place came running
in great excitement into wife's room and said, "Mrs. Susag, a cyclone is
coming." She went out with them and it was dark. There was a wood pile
about three or four rods south of our houses and parts of our neighbors
buildings south of us were blowing through our pasture and wood from the
wood pile began to go up in the air. Wife lifted her hands toward heaven
facing the storm and cried, "Lord God, don't let that storm strike our
dwelling." The cyclone turned right square to the east several rods and
then turned square again to the north-east of the buildings. When it got
beyond our buildings it turned west and when it got just in line with the
direction from which it came, it turned north again, rooting up big trees
and damaging the neighbor's buildings; but not a thing on our premises was
disturbed.

The spout of the cyclone dug a ditch several feet deep in some places. Once
more God's Word was verified: "Call and I will answer."

* * * * *

GLUTTONOUS MAN WITH DYSPEPSIA

At a meeting we were holding, Brother Tubbs, Brother Enos Key and myself
was asked to fast and pray for a man weighing from 250 to 260 pounds and
calling himself a saint!

We fasted, accordingly, and went after service Sunday noon to pray for him.
We were still fasting, but he sat up to the table and ate a big chicken
dinner and when he had finished eating he said, "Now you can pray for me."
Bro. Tubbs said, "No, we are not going to pray for you. We have been
fasting for you, and still haven't eaten, and you have sat up to the table
and eaten as much as we three preachers, together, could eat. Goodbye!" And
out we went.

* * * * *

CASTING OUT DEVILS

At a meeting in Chicago there was a woman possessed with devils, and wanted
to be delivered. Seven ministers, four men and three sisters, were working
with her for over an hour but without apparent success. We tried to lay our
hands on her but the devils in her would kick our hands away. Big knots
came out on her body, on her shoulders and neck the size of a good sized
apple. Then we ministers withdrew for a consultation among ourselves--to
see whether the hindering cause in casting these devils out, lay in us,
among ourselves--to be assured of complete unity and agreement in our
midst: And we found that there was perfect unity. That being the case, we
said, "We must have the victory, the evil spirits must go." We went back to
the woman and worked, prayed and rebuked the enemy for nearly three hours,
all to no avail.

Then one brother said, "There must be someone in the chapel sympathizing
with her." We began a search looking everywhere to find where the trouble
was and behind some folding doors in the prayer room we found a man.
Brother Knight said to him, "What are you doing here?" He said, "Can't I
stay here?" But he was told to leave forthwith and he went. We then locked
the doors of the chapel and in a few minutes the woman was delivered.

She was obliged to go home as her husband went to work at four o'clock in
the morning, but he came back the next day and was gloriously saved.

Another case of demon possession happened in Grand Forks. During a meeting
we were holding there, a man came to the service who formerly had taken his
stand with the church, coming out of a certain denomination, but before
long he returned to it again. When he came to the meeting we were holding
he was possessed. In one of the services Brother Krutz and I attempted to
lay hands on him: He was kneeling at the altar with his back to the pulpit
and he was taken up bodily and thrown upon the rostrum against the wall
behind the pulpit. I ran after him and the devil said to me, "Now, it will
go with you as it did with the seven sons of Sceva." I rebuked the devil
and when I got to the man he turned over on his back and slid, head first,
off the rostrum toward the seats, knocking his head against the seats until
it seemed as though his skull would surely be broken.

I called for help. Eight brothers came and held him so that he would not
get hurt. We laid hands on him and commanded the evil spirits to come out
of him but they did not come. Then I asked them, "What is your name?" The
answer was, "Salvation Army devil." Then in the name of the Lord Jesus we
commanded the Salvation Army devil to come out of him. And when they went
out it was with such a horrible scream that many women jumped up on their
seats in fright and the man's shirt was torn and blood was running from his
mouth and he fell on the floor as though he were dead. We let him lie there
a little while, then, laying our hands on him, prayed and he came to. This
man repented, made his confession and was saved.

* * * * *

Bro. Drysdale of Grand Forks, who had a stiff knee, was prayed for several
times, but got no help. However, in this meeting his limb became so
limbered up that he could run up and down the steps like a young man. He
got so happy that he forgot his cane and went home without it. On getting
home he discovered he had left his cane behind and ran back to the chapel
to get it, but when he got hold of his cane, his limb was as bad as ever.

When I was in Minneapolis with Brother E. G. Masters, a lady came to us to
be prayed for. She was walking with two canes. She was prayed for and the
Lord healed her. And she got around like a young woman. She went home
forgetting to take her two canes--and they were beautiful canes! She came
back to get them, but when she got hold of them she was just as crippled as
ever, and no praying helped her.

* * * * *

One time I was asked by the congregation at Rice Lake, Wisconsin, to come
and hold a meeting for them. And I felt that the Lord wanted me to do so. I
wrote the pastor there about it four times a year for two years, but he did
not want me. However the Lord said, "You go," and I went. On my arrival at
Rice Lake, I found the pastor sick in bed.

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